POCT likely to bolster healthcare market growth

MUMBAI: High operating costs incurred in laboratories pose a challenge to the Japanese diabetes diagnostics market. However, an aging population, high disease awareness, and a sound healthcare system largely overcome this.

Further, new technologies such as point of care testing (POCT) are likely to bolster market growth.

A Frost & Sullivan study finds that the Japanese Diabetes Diagnostics Markets earned revenues of $33.0 million in 2005 and estimates this to reach $463.4 million in 2012

"POCT, a non invasive technology, is set to boost the diabetes diagnostics market," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Anbarasan Vasudevan. "Quick results, less pain, and a marked preference to other methods by physicians are the main drivers for POCT applications."

POCT is used predominantly during hospitalization of patients and when immediate results are required, like in a critical care unit. Introduction of this cutting-edge non-invasive technology is likely to contribute to increased test volumes and fuel revenue growth of POCT diabetes diagnostics market.

Dedicated relationships between hospitals and distributors in Japan have traditionally prevented direct sales from manufacturers to hospitals. This has given distributors opportunities to extract high margins, affecting through higher prices.

"Due to higher price realization at the hands of customers, sale prospects also decrease," explains Vasudevan.

However, as more number of manufacturers begin to supply products directly to clinical laboratories, the advantage of lower margins is likely to pass on to customers in the form of lower prices.

CIOL Bureau